The socks are back at the Edinburgh Fringe for a fourth year with their usual mix of music, banter and infectious humour.
The gentleman behind the socks (or should I say underneath them) is Kevin Sutherland, who must have unrelenting stamina and an immunity to back problems, crouching as he does behind a tiny tartan stage for an hour, every night of the Fringe.
To talk about him too much though, is to ruin the magic: much better to talk of the socks as ´them.´
This year they have lots of ideas for television shows, with a scary amount of formats involving a member of the royal family. On the music side of things, they have an unusual knack of making cover versions that are catchier than the original. Last year it was Kenny Loggins´ ´Footloose´ which they renamed ´Swine Flu´ as in , ´Swine Flu, Swine Flu, Everybody´s Got Swine Flu.´
This year, one of the socks does a solo about his woolly friend to the tune of ´She´s Always a Woman to Me´ by Billy Joel, with some hilariously creative new lyrics.
From their seemingly obvious musical opening ´I´m a Sock´ the audience was giggling, but by the end of this original and feel good show the giggles had turned to proper belly rocking laughter, albeit with the occasional groan thrown in as the socks have rather a fetish for puns.
If you want to laugh and to make your way home with your mates delightedly quoting lines from the show, then these are the dudes to see. There´s plenty of them online (see links below) but if you possibly can, check out their live show.
The venue is bigger and less sweaty than last year, I promise. See them at the Gilded Balloon Teviot at 9.15pm every night until 29th August.
If you can´t make it to a show, view one of their few live videos below...
Another live video was taken with a wonky camcorder at last year´s fringe. This is the fabulous ´Swine Flu.´
To see their 2010 fringe teaser, The A-Z of the Fringe, check this out.
9.15pm, 21-29 August
